…

****

Stanis woke up and looked around him. He was in a room, not a house-type room but instead a laboratory type. He was in a room with clear-glass walls. Outside of it were two people and several machines with buttons and levers. One of them saw him wake up and walked towards the door, opening his room to theirs.

"Come here. You really don't want to stay in that room,"

Stanis was confused but decided to trust this man anyway, after all, he was currently naked without the slightest of protection on him. Besides, what else could he do other than just staying in the room? He walked out of the room and instantly felt a difference; he felt like he was choking for a second before the man helped him breathe.

The man guided him to seat and walked off to get a tray of goodies. He then came back and offered Stanis a collection of biscuits and a glass of water, as well as some simple clothing. As he looked at the water, he was suddenly reminded of the woman. Was that a dream, or…?

"Right, so what's your name?" the man who had helped him asked.

"Stanis."

"Stanis, eh. I'm Bill and that's Jay," the man said while pointing at his partner. "So, you basically failed the first stage!"

Stanis stared back at Bill with a blank expression. After a few seconds of waiting, Bill seemed to give up on waiting for a reaction.

*cough* "Right. Anyway, we'll basically be guiding you through the second round. No need to worry about those falsies anymore, we'll make sure you're strong enough to steamroll them by the end."

At this comment, Stanis immediately thought of Jen. If he was still alive, then she was still alive…

"Do you know where the others are?" he asked.

"The other ones who died? They'll also be going through the second stage right now. I'm sure you're all chums and that but you'll have to wait till this training is over before meeting them again." Bill said with a sympathetic expression. It was clear he had misunderstood Stanis's sentiment but Stanis wasn't bothered enough to correct him.

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"So, what do are we doing?" he asked.

"Ha, I thought you'll never ask," Bill answered.

Jay cut in at this. "Bill, cut the crap and start already. He should be in training by now," he said with a deadpan expression.

Bill sighed before turning to look at Stanis. There was a bit of longing in his eyes but that was quickly gone. "Alright, what we basically do here is hone your skills into blades. You've had a chance to fight enemies your own level, so you should now have some idea of how you're going to deal with them," he took a quick breath of air, "And here we will test those skills and techniques out, making sure you perfect them in a minimum-danger environment."

"If you'll follow me," he ended as he walked out of the main door.

Stanis followed him down a set of stairs and through another collection of doors. On the way, he saw two guards by one of the doors. Unlike him, or any of the top ten, there weren't any type of mana-fluctuations coming off these men. Or if there was, Stanis had no way of detecting it. But despite this, he could tell straight away that the guards weren't people to be messed with. The very fierceness in their eyes as they watched him, it was almost like they weren't even human…

Eventually, they entered a grand hall quite similar to a school gymnasium. The floor was wiped clean and shined with a gleam, and the walls looked concrete enough to take a punch. But considering this was the testing room, the walls could most likely take more than just a punch. Stanis's thoughts were reigned in as Bill asked him to perform a skill.

If a normal human had just asked him that, Stanis would have used one of his most unassuming or least impressive skills, after all, he needed tricks to hide that he could use in the heat of battle. Such as his darkness dagger. This brought a bad taste to Stanis's mouth and so he looked at his own shadow, before dragging it out with his fist and making it semi-corporal.

"Is that it?" asked Bill incredulously. "This is your own time you're wasting…"

Stanis cleared his throat loudly, slightly embarrassed by Bill's comment, before deciding to show off one of his greater moves.

He circulated the mana inside of him and transformed it into lightning. Thunder rumbled from him and eventually, the lightning broke out in an impressive burst. The whole hall lit up blindingly bright and the floor and walls became scorched black. Stanis opened his eyes and scrapped his previous thought; the walls and floor hadn't become scorched black, instead, they looked exactly like they had previously.

"A bit better, but you're wasting far too much energy on the release," Bill said. "The power of the lightning you built up in your body is far higher than the amount that was actually released because you released it like a loose cannon without a single target or pathway in mind."

Stanis turned his head and shook his head in disbelief. "If it was that easy, I would have done it already. But it's just so explosive, there's no way I can control that release," he said. He was certain that Bill was strong, and perhaps Bill could even do what he had just suggested, but there was no way Stanis could. It was simply too large of a release to be able to control, it was like asking a man to hold onto a 1000kg dumbbell and not drop it.

Bill laughed in response. "That's where we come in, isn't it?"…